Houston, we have a solution: How the city curbed homelessness
Growing up in rural Louisiana, J.R. Richard loved being outdoors.
Want a 103 mph fastball? How about a 98 mph slider? Mr. Richard would recommend you spend the bulk of your childhood in the woods, throwing rocks at just about anything you can.
Birds, rabbits, 18-wheelers – you name it, young J.R. probably threw a rock at it. He credits those days in the woods around Ruston with developing his once-electrifying arm strength. Inheriting the growth curve of his maternal grandfather, who spent his days hauling logs with draft horses out of the woods, didn’t hurt either. By the time he graduated high school he stood at 6 feet, 8 inches tall and 220 pounds.
Having never lost a start in his high school career – in his senior year he didn’t allow a single run – he was perhaps the most famous high school athlete in the state at the time. The Houston Astros drafted him second overall in the 1969 amateur draft.
He made his major league debut two years later, striking out 15 San Francisco Giants – including legend Willie Mays three times. Mr. Richard could look back on those long days in the rural Louisiana woods as time well spent.
But as much as he loved being outdoors as a kid, he never imagined he would end up living there.
His memory of the roughly 12 months he spent homeless in Houston in the mid-1990s is blurry, likely from
Shift in prioritiesPersonalized solutionsRoom for improvement
